My Racing Adventures 



won cleverly by half a length. It was a notable 

 achievement. 



" My joker," he explained again (the subject 

 fascinated him) after weighing in, " my joker was 

 half-drunk, blind, deaf, and of an evil temper. 

 He has had some of the professionals over the 

 rails. If I had hit him he would have made a 

 bee-line for the nearest precipice or cemetery. 

 Don't you think I'm lucky, not only to have 

 won, but also to be alive at this emergency?" 

 Felicitations followed ; something had been done 

 to earn them. 



At Aintree a few years ago, when my brother 

 William rode Captain Machell's "Emperor" 

 in the Grand National, an interesting diver- 

 gence from the riding orders was observed. 

 " Emperor " fell, and in order to come back to 

 the paddock by a short cut, William remounted 

 and rode him at the racecourse rails. The horse 

 " kneed " them, and, again falling, broke his 

 back. In a short time he was not left with a 

 hair on mane or tail : the public had virtually 

 stripped him. The same thing happened to 

 " Holocauste " when he fell in the Derby at 

 Tattenham Corner. Relics of him were sold in 

 Epsom town at night. The demand was so 

 brisk that " fakes " had to be perpetrated so as 



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